Scouts founder Baden-Powell would turn in grave if he knew what a woke, sorry excuse of an organisation it has become
WHEN Lieutenant General Robert Baden-Powell, a decorated British Army officer, founded the Boy Scouts movement in 1907, his grand plan was to make sure kids were set up to face the challenges of life.
Through tough outdoor activities such as hiking, sailing and woodcraft, it was hoped the boys of the day would be taught how to become resilient, independent men.
In an era before smartphones and social media, the original Boy Scouts took to activities including tree felling, mountaineering and even how to deal with snake bites in the wild.
Oh how Lieutenant General Baden-Powell would be turning in his grave if he knew what a woke, sorry excuse of an organisation the Scouts is becoming.
Never mind snake bites — with wetwipe Scout leaders at the helm, young budding adventurists will end up thinking the biggest risk they face in life is misgendering someone.
New guidance released by Scout leaders shows they are banning children at the organisation from using terms such as “man-made”, “dinner ladies” and “Christian name”.
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This is so they don’t cause offence to people of “all genders, religions, races and to those with disabilities”.
I never thought I would find myself agreeing with a 19th-century colonial Army general who certainly had some sketchy views, to say the least.
But I don’t mind admitting that Baden-Powell’s proclamation upon launching the Boy Scouts is correct: “Manliness can only be taught by men, and not by those who are half-men, half-old women.”
It has become a cardinal sin to dare suggest that manliness is in any way a good thing, that it’s OK for boys to aspire to be manly.
And God forbid you suggest that young boys need strong men to look up to — that’s enough to get you hanged, drawn and quartered on the public square these days.
Not only are young boys of today being brainwashed into thinking that everything about the very normal adventurous, macho, laddish nature of being a young boy is a part of “toxic masculinity” — but that being a man isn’t even a thing.
And it’s not just Boy Scouts who have fallen into the clutches of gender-obsessed adults in positions of power.
The claws of this unhinged inclusion-activist brigade are digging firmly into girls too.
‘Explore gender’
Girlguiding is the UK’s largest girl-only youth organisation and the leading charity for girls in the country, with 100,000 volunteers working with up to a quarter of a million girls at any given time.
With a purpose such as this, you’d expect to find no other organisation entirely centred around . . . well, girls.
How odd, then, that the organisation has told its leaders that they should learn 100 “gender-inclusive terms” to cater to the gender diversity of its members. They include words such as “aromantic”, “demisexual”, “agender” and “pansexual”.
Guidance has also said that girls ought to “explore gender” by using a “genderbread person” — a spin on the classic gendered biscuit that shows the difference between gender, sex and sexual orientation.
The irony is that Girlguiding says its mission is to build “an equal world where all girls can be safe, happy and reach their potential”.
Only in 2022 can an organisation set up for girls be telling girls that being a girl isn’t a thing.
Please, God, can someone pull the emergency lever and let us sensible people off this fast train to utter madness.
BRAVE MAYA IS A HERO
NOT all heroes wear capes, but those who wear their opinions loud and proud are heroes in my eyes.
And heroine of the week (maybe even year) HAS to go to Maya Forstater.
The tax expert bravely took her employer to court when she lost her job for saying that you couldn’t change biological sex.
On Wednesday, a judge ruled Maya had indeed been discriminated against by her former employer, paving the way for millions currently being demonised for unashamedly voicing their views.
Author J.K. Rowling, no stranger to the wrath of extremist, trans-rights bullies, tweeted this in support: “Every woman who’s been harassed, silence, bullied or lost employment because of her gender-critical beliefs is freer and safer today.”
This cannot be emphasised enough.
Not only is this a much- needed nod of approval for everyone who has bravely spoken out in defence of women, it is a middle finger to execs and HR departments who want to pander to snow- flake gender extremists.
TORIES’ OXFORD BLUES
EVERY Conservative Prime Minister we’ve had this century has gone to Oxford.
Boris Johnson and David Cameron not only went there, but were both educated at the nearly £50,000-a-year private school Eton and both took the exact same university course at the exact same time.
Surely if there was a time for the party to elect a figurehead who can at least pretend they’re in touch with ordinary people, it would be now, in the middle of a cost-of- living crisis.
It’s not that I have anything against pretentious, Oxford-educated politics buffs. (Full disclosure: I happen to be one of them.)
But if the Tories want to properly rebrand themselves as a party which truly understands the plight of ordinary people, maybe putting in place a leader who wasn’t dripping head to toe in privilege the moment they left the womb might not be a bad idea.
KIM’S STUNT WASN’T PLANNED? OH, STOP IT
I PITY the kids of narcissistic Hollywood celebs who are so often used as cannon fodder to bolster their parents’ careers.
The worst offenders have to be the Kardashians, who parade their children on social media like props.
This week, Kim Kardashian hauled nine-year-old North West to Paris Fashion Week.
North stole all the attention when she wrote a big sign saying “STOP” and held it up to the paparazzi who would not stop taking pictures of her.
Kim says her daughter did this entirely of her own accord as a funny stunt.
Call me a cynic, but the idea that this wasn’t orchestrated by her attention-hungry mother and her PR machine is for the birds.
Everything in that wretched family’s life screams fake.
A GRAY RIGHTS ISSUE
THREE cheers for singer Macy Gray who appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored on Monday and declared that: “Just because you go change your parts, doesn’t make you a woman – sorry.”
It’s always great to hear another celeb refuse to jump into the gender-fluidity rabbithole of doom.
Of course, the “tolerant” left-wing crowd on Twitter ambushed her with vitriol.
The type that attack anyone who so much as says a word they don’t like, all while filling their social media with “be kind” hashtags.
Trans journalist India Willoughby suggested Macy had managed to “kill” her career.
How rich of her to mock Macy’s career.
She is a Grammy Award-winning artist who has sold more than 25million albums worldwide.
Willoughby, on the other hand, was so unpopular with the public when she went into the Celebrity Big Brother House in 2018 that she was the first to be booted out.
PUNISH KILLER MUMS
STAR HOBSON, Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, Logan Mwangi.
Just three in an excruciatingly long list of innocent children tortured and killed by parents recently.
Most sickening is the punishment these killer parents receive.
In the recent case of little Logan, the minimum sentences handed to his parents was just under 30 years.
Star Hobson’s killer stepmum received a minimum of 25 years and little Arthur’s stepmum murderer got 29.
Although life sentences were given in each case, early release rules and soft-touch parole boards mean, in all likelihood, the monsters will be set free one day.
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That is exactly why the Home Secretary must expand the use of WHOLE life terms for child murderers.
I don’t care how much it costs to lock them all up until their last breath – it’s a price worth paying.